another day another walk

A dry day with the best of the sunshine in the morning so up and out it was. A decent 13k steps from home, up a couple of hills, on a new route to mostly avoid muddy fields. We walked down to the river but unusually for us we crossed it and took the narrow footpath road along Duffield Bank, looking across the valley back to the village. Onwards to Milford and then up the Chevin and along the pretty old roman road pictured above. In extra is the interesting Stephenson's Tower which is near a ventilation shaft on top of the hill and above the railway tunnel built in 1840 by George and Robert Stephenson for the North Midlands Railway Co. The use of the tower isn't known but it is thought that it was to check the alignment of the tunnel construction, and was equipped with a rotating telescope, however it has been pointed out that such a facility appeared with no other tunnel of the time. Whatever,  the tunnel still does a good job with the Sheffield to London intercity regularly thundering through it .